World-renowned chef Patrick O’Connell has been recognized as a pioneer of American cuisine; his internationally acclaimed restaurant in the Virginia countryside, the Inn at Little Washington, is Michelin-starred and a Relais & Châteaux hotel. Named for the three historic streets in the little town where O’Connell’s life and career have taken root, Main, Middle & Gay chronicles O’Connell’s winding journey through the rough-and-tumble restaurant world.
Growing up gay in the 1950s and working as a paperboy and a cook at a hamburger joint, O’Connell found his place with other misfits in the addictive restaurant scene, where he learned to be nimble and grew up fast while working long hours and late nights with colorful characters. He lived free-spirited on farms with friends and traveled Europe, teaching himself to cook along the way. When he opened his restaurant in an old abandoned garage, he had no idea it would grow to the heights it has achieved today.
In his first-ever memoir, O’Connell shows us the evolution that has led the Inn at Little Washington to become a global destination for foodies and travelers alike.
Patrick O’Connell is a self-taught chef who pioneered a regional American cuisine in a rural Virginia village. His alliance with local farmers was born of necessity more than forty years ago, when nothing but milk was delivered to the town. In 1978, he opened the Inn at Little Washington in a former garage; now the restaurant is regarded as an international culinary shrine. Chef O’Connell is referred to as “the Pope of American cuisine.”
Patricia Wells of the International Herald Tribune named the Inn one of the top ten restaurants in the world, hailing O’Connell as “a rare chef with a sense of near-perfect taste, like a musician with perfect pitch.”
O’Connell was asked to cook for Queen Elizabeth II on her visit to Virginia in 2007. He has appeared on Good Morning America, the Today show, The Early Show on CBS, The Martha Stewart Show, Top Chef, The Diane Rehm Show, and Charlie Rose and is a frequent guest speaker at the Smithsonian and the Culinary Institute of America.
Twice named one of Time Magazine’s “100 Most Influential People” and awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, José Andrés is an internationally renowned chef, New York Times bestselling author, Emmy Award-winning television personality, educator, and humanitarian.
Born and raised in Spain, he is credited with popularizing tapas in America and oversees more than 40 restaurants as the Executive Chairman of José Andrés Group, including the 2 Michelin-starred Minibar in Washington, DC.
José is the founder of World Central Kitchen, a nonprofit organization that is first to the frontlines, providing meals in response to humanitarian, climate, and community crises. From Ukraine to Gaza to Haiti, across the United States and beyond, WCK’s “food first responders” have partnered with local chefs and restaurants to serve nearly one billion nourishing meals around the world.
Tom Sietsema is the author of “Next Course,” an online newsletter devoted to food, entertaining and travel, and the food correspondent for The Star, a Washington-based political news site from Politico co-founder Robert Allbritton. Previously, he was the food critic for The Washington Post (2000-2025), where he received a James Beard award for his year-long series on the 10 best food cities in America.
A Minnesota native, Sietsema is a graduate of the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. He has also worked at Microsoft Corp., the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, the San Francisco Chronicle and The Milwaukee Journal.
José has helped shape the global dialogue around food while inspiring chefs worldwide to see feeding people as both a craft and a higher calling. In 2022, he launched the Global Food Institute at George Washington University to train the next generation of food policy leaders, and was selected to give the keynote address at the first White House hunger conference in over 50 years. His work has earned awards and distinctions including the 2015 National Humanities Medal, “Outstanding Chef” and “Humanitarian of the Year” by the James Beard Foundation, and the Washington Business Journal’s CEO of the Year for his leadership of the restaurant industry during the 2020 pandemic.
A proud naturalized U.S. citizen, Andrés has been a tireless advocate for immigration reform and on July 4, 2014 was named by President Barack Obama as that year’s “Outstanding American by Choice.”